The Division of Medical Sciences was established at Harvard University in 1908.[1] The Division was designed to provide students wishing to pursue careers in research and teaching with a broad education in basic biomedical science fields and specialization in one of them. For over 100 years, this collaboration between Harvard Medical School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University has spawned research achievements acorss the spectrum from basic science to experimental medicine. Since 1909, over 2,200 Division graduates, including six Nobel Laureatesm have gone on to distiguished careers in biomedical research, university teaching, and a number of increasingly diverse careers.

The creation of the Division was the outcome of considerable discussion and negotiation of a proposal made by Professor James Minot and adopted by the Faculty of Medicine on January 5, 1907. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, however, modified the proposal, recommending that the Ph.D. program should be administered by "means of a joint committee of the two Faculties." The proposal was adopted by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on November 17, 1908. The joint committee later became known as the Division of Medical Sciences.

Around 1950, predoctoral fellowships were awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to individual students. Training grants to departments began to appear in the late 1950's and the early 1960's.

The Ph.D. program in Virology was created at a general meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on March 8, 1983.